Police say a villager from southwest China killed 17 of his neighbors in an attempt to cover up murdering his parents.

An investigation found that Yang Qingpei killed his parents because of an argument with them about money, according to the Xinhua state news agency, the New York Post reported.

Qingpei reportedly murdered 17 of his neighbors in the village of Yema, fearing he would be found out as his parents’ killer if any of them remained alive, police say.

Xinhua did not say how he murdered his victims.

Qingpei was arrested in Kunming about 120 miles away on Thursday, just hours after the bodies were discovered.

The deaths are among the bloodiest mass slayings in recent years in China, where mass killings are rare. Access to firearms is tightly controlled in China, so mass killings are usually carried out using knives, poison, homemade explosives, or by arson.